Bizzare incident at airport with government officials

I'm not sure whether this is the appropriate place for this topic, but it should be of interest to conspiracy-minded readers who follow government
activities.

I received an email from an acquaintance yesterday detailing an odd experience he had at the hands of several government agents in an airport. It was
a long message and rather than cut and paste it I will briefly summarize the contents, below.

The person in question (I'll call him "John") was on a domestic flight between two medium-sized US cities. Right before landing, the plane
experienced some very heavy turbulence, rattling and dropping unexpectedly before banking at a very sharp angle and then settling back into a normal
pattern. Apparently it was bad enough to elicit screams of shock and fear from many of the passengers. The plane landed without any undue difficulties
or injuries, the captain apologized, and everyone got off.

After this, John collected his luggage and he was on his way out of the airport when two government agents in "Mr. Smith"-style "men in black"
coats, ties, and sunglasses stopped him and flashed badges. The men did not identify themselves by name or give the name of the government agency they
worked for; the badge was flashed too fast for the person to get a good look at it but it was clear these were not normal police or security men, nor
were they airline or airport personnel. "Politely but firmly," in John's words, they motioned for him to follow them. They were wearing headsets
and spoke some crisp jargon code to somebody as they led John back through the terminal and through a small unmarked door into a brightly-light
concrete room with a table and so on. By this time John was trying to ask a few questions by the men just ignored him until he was seated.

The men began to pepper him with questions: who he was, what he was doing, where he was going. But the questions took an odd turn: the men kept asking
him why he was not afraid when the plane dropped and experienced turbulence. John found it an exceedingly odd line of questioning.

He had, indeed, remained rather calm throughout the event in the plane, not manifesting any fear, shock, or nervousness like the other passengers.
"What can I say, I guess I'm hard to rattle," he wrote in the letter. He did not recognize the interrogators from the flight, nor did they identify
themselves as being on the flight. They kept asking him WHY he hadn't yelled out or been scared like the other passengers. Was he drunk? On any
medication? Had he had brain surgery recently or undergone any neurological treatment? No, no, and no. They even asked him if he meditated or
practiced any yogic-style disciplines, a question he found extremely odd and answered truthfully as "no." He wrote that he wished he hadn't
answered it because it was verging on religious belief, but he was just so taken aback by the whole line of questioning that he blurted out "no"
before he could even think of it. The men made him answer the same set of questions about 4 times and peppered him with a set of random questions
about his lifestyle, health, job, and so on.

After ten minutes or so John finally asked if he was under arrest or being charged with anything, and if not could the let him go. The men said
certainly, he could go and that they were just "collecting information." They asked him to fill out several un-letterheaded forms with name,
address, and telephone numbers and then led him to the exit and let him go.

In his email, John said he wished he had stood up for his rights a bit or pressed the men harder on who they represented, why they were interested in
his "lack of fear" on the flight, and so on. But, the whole thing happened so quickly and he was so taken aback by it that he just dumbly went
along. In retrospect, however, he found the whole thing extremely bizarre, especially the primary line of questioning ("why were you not afraid when
the plane experienced difficulties?"). He could not slot it into any category or grasp what it all meant, and I admit that neither can I.

Like John himself, I find the whole thing disturbing and confusing, and like him, I have no idea why this could have happened or what these two were
"investigating," either. I am posting this in the hope that perhaps some of you might have ideas about what this all means.

I agree that it could be made up. I don't find it hard to believe that someone's reaction to such an event could be monitered to the extent
described in the story. But why? Even if there's a good reason to collect such information, why confront an individual afterwards? If the
technology in place was good enough to record the passengers reactions to the event, it would seem those involved in the process of gathering said
information would already know the answers to the questions that were asked. Why would they blow the cover of such an operation for such unimportant
questions?

i've been harassed many times by "government" officials, but this story seems a little hard pressed, maybe he was just embellishing? but like was
stated before me and what i do when this situation comes up, is i stand up for myself and unless they are going to arrest me i basically tell em to
jolly-off

maybe he was to caught up in the moment, it's hard to tell from just an email

I've heard similar stories in the UK with authorities being interested in people not easily rattled or those that display independent mentalities.
There is even data being collect on precocious and insightful children that might be a problem in adulthood. The excuse is that the authorities are
only interested in children that are showing signs of future criminality even if they have the opportunities of a middle class family. This
information is not collected for intervention, its just stored.

I know of one person who single handedly mobilised a few hundred people at Stanstead airport near London when flights were delayed several hours. He
was in the arrivals area having parked his car along with others at the airport carpark at £6 an hour ($10) per vehicle. He said that he complained
that while the flight delays were unfortunate and it was no one's fault, he did not see why there be a continuation of the carpark fees. A huge
hoopla developed and the airport manager came over and cancelled all parking fees.

Later on that evening, some men turned up at his home claiming to be police officers. They asked a lot of personal questions about all aspects of his
life. He refused to cooperate and asked if he was under arrest. They said not but claimed that a complaint had been lodged and were investigating. His
response was an invitation for them to view the airport cctv and to get the hell out of his house.

The only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps an air marshall observed his behavior during the in-flight incident, and alerted these men on
arrival, so as to protect his identity.

... or the story was BS. lol

... or, perhaps he will get a call asking him if he wants to join the CIA or FBI, because they observed that he remained calm under pressure, and it
wasn't because he was in a drug altered state of calm. (tongue in cheek here)

Airports and other public conveyances all have signs posted telling passengers how to contact authorities about suspicious persons, packages and
incidents. Ever hear the story about the writer Henry Rollins being detained in Australia a few years back for reading a book on Islam on a plane?
That stuff happens all the time.
I can hazard a guess though that if the story is true that a Homeland Security agent saw him and called it in. I was on a plane ride two years ago out
of Chicago and got watched like a hawk by one because I was shaking from the cold (no blankets on board and I had on shorts, it was about 55 degrees
and even the stewardesses were complaining to captain). He even followed me out through the terminal to luggage claim. Yeah, I was premenstrual and
planning to send off a tampon bomb!

Seriously, that behavior is a trigger sign, you can tell the difference between deer-in-headlights panic and preemptive calm.

Sounds like your friend was "supposed" to be scared when there was turbulence and he wasn't. That definitely sounds like the MIB/Federal Police
stuff. Especially when they claim that they're just "gathering information" and that he is not under arrest. At that point your friend should have
walked out.

It's kind of odd that these folks are worried about airplane turbulence, though. Completely got me there. They must have had something to do with the
response of everyone else on the plane, and were unable to get your friend to respond to the "turbulence" at all. I don't see any other reason that
they'd want to "talk" with your friend.

Actually, your friend shouldn't have went into private with these folks, as they're not police or anything like that. He should have ignored them
and walked around them. These folks don't always use physical force to pull someone into a back office, so he should have called their bluff much
sooner than that.

Rule #1: If they don't have picture ID clearly identifying them, and they can't tell you what organization they're from, then don't comply. It's
that simple.

Most of you seem to think he is lying/embellishing. I'll try to get more info out of him and see if I can find out if this is the case. I don't see
why he would lie about this, though. The email was CC'd to maybe ten people; what would he have to gain by lying? Curiouser and curiouser.

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